A Sphinx Draws Him: Maximilian of Austria and the Egyptian Collections

A Sphinx Draws Him: Maximilian of Austria and the Egyptian Collections between Trieste and Vienna

Period: 2 April – 1 November 2026
Venue: Scuderie, Miramare Castle, Trieste

• Organiser: Historical Museum and Park of Miramare Castle
• Co-organiser: Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)
• Scientific contribution: Museo Egizio (Turin)
• Curators: Massimo Osanna, Christian Greco, Cäcilia Bischoff, Michaela Hüttner

The exhibition explores the genesis and subsequent history of the Egyptian collections assembled by Archduke Maximilian of Austria, tracing their links to Vienna's museum administrations in the late nineteenth century. Loans from the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s Egypto-Oriental Collection, together with objects from Miramare and Trieste’s civic antiquities holdings, reconstruct the collection’s formation and the curatorial choices behind it.

The display highlights both important archaeological items and the personal, diplomatic and commercial networks that shaped Maximilian’s collecting. The project examines how a private antiquities cabinet evolved into a public institution for study, conservation and access.

Works on loan from Vienna are placed alongside Miramare’s own pieces and artefacts from local civic collections, illustrating the broader Triestine interest in Egyptology and the nineteenth-century shift toward public museum use.

Educational programme: the Historical Museum and Park of Miramare Castle, in partnership with CoopCulture, offers activities for schools of all levels. Workshops, guided explorations and storytelling sessions are designed to engage students with Egyptian symbols, materials and techniques.

Visitor information: tickets and practical details are available via the museum’s ticket office and official channels. Visitors are advised to check opening hours and book guided tours in advance where possible.

This exhibition provides a chance to understand how nineteenth-century collecting practices helped form today’s public museum collections and to view objects that connect Trieste to major European institutions of Egyptology.